This ARIA project, “Write it Down! The Politics of Documentation in Student-Led Social Movement Mobilization,” studies forms of documentation undertaken in student social movements addressing intersectional gender-based violence and other forms of oppression. The research for this project was conducted primarily in local student organizations documentary holdings. Specifically, I sorted and collected materials held in the Black Student Network’s (BSN) archives to be examined and archived in the Feminist Student News and Protest (SNAP) archive. Additionally, I tagged and provided descriptions for materials from the McGill Daily’s archives that were collected by previous Feminist SNAP researchers in .CSV (comma-sorted values) files.
I was interested in this ARIA project because the organizational memory of student organizations is often lost in the larger institutional memory of the University that they operate within. Institutions for higher education often seek to erase student-driven methods of record-keeping to control narratives of resistance within and against them, and McGill is not exempt from this. Therefore, I felt that the project was an important step in combatting this pattern and creating space for an alternative cultural memory to emerge. I was interested in the ARIA program in general because I was eager to gain training in different methods of research in my field, and for the opportunity to work alongside Dr. Rentschler, who will be supervising my GSFS Honours undergraduate thesis this coming year. Over the course of my project, I gained practical experience in documentary and archival research, and the skills needed to analyse movement documentation critically and historically.
The learning objectives of the project were to determine how students in movement work were/are documenting their own work, how closely their stated goals aligned with their actions, and finally to develop a cohesive archive within McGill’s institutional memory that documents the long history of student activism and advocacy in the institution. In terms of my own learning objectives, I was hoping to gain experience in research collaboration and specifically learn more about the back end of archival research in terms of organizing the materials I collected.One of the highlights of this project was getting the opportunity to work with the BSN to archive their materials. It was an enormous task to identify all the relevant materials in their documentary holdings and then go through the process of scanning and organizing them, but it was incredibly fruitful and gave me a sense of the breadth of their work as an organization on campus. To see that organizing tactics used in the ‘90s are ones that are still used today, and to see the extent of the work put in – not only in their actual campaigns but also in ensuring the adequate documentation of these campaigns – was very hopeful.
One of the challenges I faced was setting overly ambitious goals for myself in the project. My capacity for setting realistic timelines for myself in research projects is a skill that I still need to develop. Since there were times that I set goals for myself that I simply could not achieve in the time I had, I often felt that I was failing the project, despite having completed the task of archiving all of the BSN’s relevant materials and nearly completing the Daily .CSV, which were two jobs that required a lot of time and attention. I’ve learned that to deal with this overestimation of my capacity, I can ask for more project oversight from my supervisors to help set realistic goals for projects.
I think the ARIA provided me with an opportunity to conduct research that I found meaningful and necessary within the context of academia. This project has shaped some of the approaches that I plan to take with my undergraduate thesis, specifically around my research methodology. Additionally, I’ve developed a skillset around archival/documentary research and research collaboration that will prove invaluable to my work in the communities I am a part of. For this I would like to thank Mr. Harry Samuel for funding my award, because it has altered the trajectory of my career and education for the better.
